2018 African Nations Championship
The 2018 African Nations Championship, known as the Total African Nations Championship (also referred to as CHAN 2018) was the 5th edition of the African Nations Championship, a biennial football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) exclusively featuring players from the respective national championships. It took place between 12 January and 4 February 2018. In February 2016, Kenya was announced as the host nation but in September 2017, CAF decided to change the host nation due to a lack of progress with preparations.[1][2] Morocco was announced as the host nation in October 2017.[3]
| بطولة أمم أفريقيا للمحليين 2018 2018 CHAN | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Tournament details | |
| Host country | Morocco |
| Dates | 13 January – 4 February 2018 |
| Teams | 16 (from 1 confederation) |
| Venue(s) | 4 (in 4 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  |
| Runners-up |  |
| Third place |  |
| Fourth place |  |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 32 |
| Goals scored | 58 (1.81 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | |
| Best player(s) | |
| Fair play award | |
Unlike the African Cup of Nations, the competing national teams must be composed of players playing in their domestic league. For example, a Moroccan player is only eligible to play for the Morocco national team if he is playing for a Moroccan club.[4]
Hosts Morocco defeated Nigeria in the final to win their first title. DR Congo were the defending champions but failed to qualify for the first time ever after losing to Congo on away goals rule.
Host selection
Initially, Kenya was announced as the host nation in February 2016. But in September 2017, CAF decided to change the host nation due to a lack of progress with preparations.[5]
The CAF received three bids by the deadline of 30 September 2017 to replace Kenya as new hosts:[6]
The Ethiopian Football Federation did not provide the government's letter of guarantee, and were not considered. The CAF Emergency Committee decided to choose Morocco over Equatorial Guinea in October 2017.[7]
Qualification
The qualifying rounds took place from April to August 2017.[8]
Since Morocco had already qualified in the North Zone before being named as replacement hosts, their spot in the final tournament was re-allocated to Egypt, which lost to Morocco in the North Zone final qualifying round.[9] However, Egypt declined to participate citing a "congested domestic calendar".[10] As a result, the spot was reverted to Central-East Zone (as originally three teams would participate including Kenya as original hosts), and would go to the winner of a play-off in November 2017 between Ethiopia and Rwanda, the two teams which lost in the Central-East Zone final qualifying round.[11]
Qualified teams
The following 16 teams qualified for the final tournament.
| Team | Zone | Appearance | Previous best performance | FIFA ranking at start of event |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Central Zone | 3rd | Quarter-finals (2011, 2016) | 45 |
 | 2nd | Group stage (2014) | 96 | |
 | 1st | Debut | 146 | |
 | Central-East Zone | 3rd | Quarter-finals (2016) | 113 |
| 2nd | Third place (2011) | 136 | |
 | 4th | Group stage (2011, 2014, 2016) | 75 | |
| North Zone | 3rd | Champions (2014) | 88 |
| 3rd | Quarter-finals (2014) | 40 | |
 | South Zone | 3rd | Runners-up (2011) | 141 |
 | 1st | Debut | 118 | |
 | 3rd | Third place (2009) | 74 | |
 | West A Zone | 2nd | Fourth place (2016) | 65 |
 | 2nd | Group stage (2014) | 99 | |
 | West B Zone | 2nd | Group stage (2014) | 44 |
 | 4th | Third place (2016) | 61 | |
| 3rd | Third place (2014) | 51 |
Venues
Matches were held in Casablanca, Marrakech, Agadir and Tangier.
| Casablanca | Marrakesh | |
|---|---|---|
| Stade Mohamed V | Stade de Marrakech | |
| Capacity: 45,600 | Capacity: 45,240 | |
 | ||
| Tangier | Agadir | |
| Stade Ibn Batouta | Stade Adrar | |
| Capacity: 45,000 | Capacity: 45,480 | |
Before their hosting rights were withdrawn, Football Kenya Federation planned to use four stadiums as competition venues.[12] However, only Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi and Kasarani Stadium in Kasarani were considered to meet hosting requirements after CAF inspection, while Mombasa Municipal Stadium in Mombasa and Kinoru Stadium in Meru did not.[13]
Squads
Each squad can contain a maximum of 23 players (Regulations Article 72).[14] The finalized squads were announced by the CAF on 10 January 2018.[15][16] Players must play for clubs in their home country.
Match officials
A total of 32 match officials (16 referees and 16 assistant referees) were selected for the tournament. In addition, seven match official were selected to operate the video assistant referee (VAR) system starting from the quarter-finals, a first in African competitions.[17][18][19]
Draw
The draw of the final tournament was held on 17 November 2017, 19:30 WET (UTC±0), at Sofitel Rabat in Rabat, Morocco.[20]
The 16 teams were drawn into four groups of four teams.[21] The hosts Morocco were seeded in Group A. The remaining teams were seeded based on their results in the four most recent final tournaments: 2009 (multiplied by 1), 2011 (multiplied by 2), 2014 (multiplied by 3), 2016 (multiplied by 4):[22][23][24]
- 7 points for winner
- 5 points for runner-up
- 3 points for semi-finalists
- 2 points for quarter-finalists
- 1 point for group stage
Based on the formula above, the four pots were allocated as follows:
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Group stage
The top two teams of each group advance to the quarter-finals.
- Tiebreakers
Teams are ranked according to points (3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, 0 points for a loss), and if tied on points, the following tiebreaking criteria are applied, in the order given, to determine the rankings (Regulations Article 74):[14]
- Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
- If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above are reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
- Goal difference in all group matches;
- Goals scored in all group matches;
- Drawing of lots.
All times are local, WET (UTC±0).[25]
Group A
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | +6 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 7 | |
| 3 | |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 3 | |
| 4 | |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | −6 | 0 |
| Morocco | 4–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Guinea | 1–2 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
| Morocco | 3–1 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
| Sudan | 1–0 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| Sudan | 0–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Mauritania | 0–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
Group B
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | +4 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | +2 | 7 | |
| 3 | |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 1 | |
| 4 | |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 1 |
| Ivory Coast | 0–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
| Ivory Coast | 0–2 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
| Uganda | 0–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
Group C
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | |
3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 6 | |
| 3 | |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | |
| 4 | |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | −6 | 0 |
| Libya | 3–0 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| Nigeria | 0–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Rwanda | 1–0 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| Equatorial Guinea | 1–3 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
Group D
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | +3 | 7 | Knockout stage |
| 2 | |
3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | +1 | 5 | |
| 3 | |
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 2 | |
| 4 | |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 |
| Angola | 0–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Congo | 2–0 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
| Congo | 0–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Burkina Faso | 1–1 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
Knockout stage
In the knockout stage, extra time and penalty shoot-out are used to decide the winner if necessary, except for the third place match where penalty shoot-out (no extra time) is used to decide the winner if necessary (Regulations Article 75).[14]
Bracket
| Quarter-finals | Semi-finals | Final | ||||||||
| 27 January – Casablanca | ||||||||||
| 2 | |||||||||
| 31 January – Casablanca | ||||||||||
| 0 | |||||||||
| 3 | |||||||||
| 28 January – Agadir | ||||||||||
| 1 | |||||||||
| 1 (3) | |||||||||
| 4 February – Casablanca | ||||||||||
| 1 (5) | |||||||||
| 4 | |||||||||
| 27 January – Marrakech | ||||||||||
| 0 | |||||||||
| 0 | |||||||||
| 31 January – Marrakech | ||||||||||
| 1 | |||||||||
| 0 | |||||||||
| 28 January – Tangier | ||||||||||
| 1 | Third place | ||||||||
| 2 | |||||||||
| 3 February – Marrakech | ||||||||||
| 1 | |||||||||
| 1 (2) | |||||||||
| 1 (4) | |||||||||
Quarter-finals
| Morocco | 2–0 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
| Zambia | 0–1 | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
| Congo | 1–1 (a.e.t.) | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
| Penalties | ||
| 3–5 |
|
|
Semi-finals
| Morocco | 3–1 (a.e.t.) | |
|---|---|---|
| Report |
|
Third place match
| Libya | 1–1 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Report |
|
| Penalties | ||
|
2–4 |
|
Goalscorers
- 9 goals
- 3 goals
- 2 goals
- 1 goal
Awards
The following awards were given at the conclusion of the tournament:[26]
- Total Man of the Tournament: Ayoub El Kaabi (Morocco)
- Top scorer: Ayoub El Kaabi (Morocco) – 9 goals
- Fair Play: Morocco
- Team of the tournament:
- Goalkeeper: Akram El Hadi (Sudan)
- Defenders: Omer Suliman (Sudan), Stephen Eze (Nigeria), Badr Benoun (Morocco)
- Midfielders: Solomon Ojo (Nigeria), Walid El Karti (Morocco), Salaheddine Saidi (Morocco), Zakaria Hadraf (Morocco), Abdulrahman Ramadhan (Libya)
- Forwards: Ayoub El Kaabi (Morocco), Saleh Taher (Libya)
- Substitutes: Anas Zniti (Morocco), Sand Masaud (Libya), Vladimir Antonio (Angola), Bader Hasan (Libya), Augustine Mulenga (Zambia), Saifeldin Bakhit (Sudan), Ismail El Haddad (Morocco)
Man of the match
Tournament team rankings
As per statistical convention in football, matches decided in extra time are counted as wins and losses, while matches decided by penalty shoot-outs are counted as draws.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Final result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |
6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 2 | +14 | 16 | Champions |
| 2 | |
6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 13 | Runners-up |
| 3 | |
6 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | +2 | 11 | Third place |
| 4 | |
6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 6 | +1 | 8 | Fourth place |
| 5 | |
4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 | +3 | 8 | Eliminated in quarter-finals |
| 6 | |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 3 | +3 | 7 | |
| 7 | |
4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 7 | |
| 8 | |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 5 | |
| 9 | |
3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | Eliminated in group stage |
| 10 | |
3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | −2 | 3 | |
| 11 | |
3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 2 | |
| 12 | |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | −2 | 1 | |
| 13 | |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | −3 | 1 | |
| 14 | |
3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | −3 | 1 | |
| 15 | |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | −6 | 0 | |
| 16 | |
3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 6 | −6 | 0 |
(H) Host.
References
- "Kenya to Host 2018 Africa Nations Cup". allAfrica.com. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- "From Rwanda to Kenya". CAF. 9 February 2016.
- "الكاف يختار المغرب لاستضافة كاس افريقيا للاعبين المحليين 2018 | الموقع الرسمي للجامعة الملكية المغربية لكرة القدم". www.frmf.ma. 15 October 2017. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
- "Kenya to host 2018 African Nations Championship". www.nation.co.ke. Retrieved 7 February 2016.
- "Kenya loses Chan hosting rights as Caf decides". Daily Nation. 23 September 2017. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
- "TOTAL CHAN 2018: Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia and Morocco are bidding for the organisation". CAF. 1 October 2017.
- "Morocco will host Total CHAN 2018". CAF. 15 October 2017.
- "CAF Flash Magazine: Final 2016 Orange Confederation Cup" (PDF). CAF.
- "Egypt qualify for Total CHAN, Morocco 2018". CAF. 15 October 2017.
- "AFRICAN FOOTBALL Egypt declines CHAN 2018 invite". soka25east.com. 22 October 2017.
- "Play-off Ethiopia - Rwanda for a place in Total Chan, Morocco 2018". CAF. 28 October 2017.
- Jacob Gachanja (17 May 2016). "FKF reveals stadia plans ahead of CHAN 2018". futaa.com. Archived from the original on 19 May 2016. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- "Kenya 'Loses' Rights to Host 2018 CHAN Due To Shoddy Stadiums". Nairobi Wire. Retrieved 29 August 2016.
- "Regulations of the African Nations Championship" (PDF). CAF.
- "Squad lists revealed". CAF. 10 January 2018.
- "Squad Lists" (PDF). CAF.
- "Match Officials for Total CHAN Morocco 2018 announced". CAF. 26 December 2017.
- "CHAN 2018 Appointed Referees" (PDF). CAF.
- "CHAN kicks off as local African talent goes on show". CAF. 12 January 2018.
- "Draw on November 17th in Rabat". CAF. 18 October 2017.
- "Results and Fixtures of Total CHAN Morocco 2018 draw". CAF. 17 November 2017.
- "Total CHAN 2018: Pots for final draw revealed". CAF. 15 November 2017.
- "Procedure for the draw" (PDF). CAF. 15 November 2017.
- "Ranking of qualified teams" (PDF). CAF. 15 November 2017.
- "Fixtures of the Final Tournament". CAF.
- "El Kaabi named Total man of the tournament". CAF. 6 February 2018.